A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball

I really do. I don’t know why, maybe it’s his name. I have know a couple of hot women named Ryan in my life and I don’t like dude’s named “Ryan”. One of them spells her name “Rian”. That’s almost more annoying than Dempster’s dominance tonight……

I haven’t read anything tonight, I just saw a random rumor on the last messed up thread about us re-acquiring Uribe.

I would be 100% in support of that. This team needs something. It’s needs his mojo. And his mojo doesn’t work unless it’s connected to AT&T Park. He can play SS this year or 2nd, whatever. Just bring him back. I know what his numbers are, they are about what I thought he’d do away from AT&T. There’s magic inside, and Juan gets that NOW  it’s got nothing to do with pussy white and blue. Black and Orange, baby. That’s where your colors are………

Unfortunately, I don’t think Juan would want to come back. That story that leaked about the 45K he owed his landlord didn’t come from the landlord. Someone in the org leaked it. He left over a million bucks, there were other things going on. But both parties should put their petty differences aside and remember what made them both their strongest: each other.

I want Juan Uribe back on this team………..

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(At this point in the year, dropping 7 on us is huge (Blade). BB continues his assault on his next victim)

The dream of seeing Zito’s re-worked mechanics producing more velocity died early for me last night. Instead of 83-84mph he was going 84-85mph. Sorry, that still ain’t gonna cut it. And his curve ball was average. Reed Johnson leading off the game and striking out swinging on a ball above his eyeballs, kinda told you what their game plan was going to be against Zito. Over-anxious hitters combined with some luck and a fantastic defensive play by Crawford allowed us all to exhale safely after Zito pitched 7 serviceable innings. Ironically, he did go 7, something Dirrrty Sanchez has managed to do only once in his last 7 starts. And hey, securing your 2nd win in nearly a year had to feel good, too.

I don’t hate Zito, I believe he is putting in maximum effort expected for a guy who’s making 126 million. I just don’t believe he will ever be able to be consistently serviceable as a #5 with his current velocity. He simply doesn’t have the command necessary to do it without a ton of luck, which he had going for him yesterday. Unusual, since paragraph 3, line 7 of *Zito’s Law* clearly states that “at no time will Zito ever benefit from any luck during a start.”

I am imagining that there will be another fallout from Zito’s return, and we may have seen a prelude to it yesterday. The aura that Voggy carried during so many of his starts while Zito was on the shelf seemed to evaporate yesterday. One bad start does not a regression make, but it could be a warning to heed: Zito is back and all the good mojo and vibes you once had can be taken away in an instant by the return of “Zito’s Law”………

The best thing we can hope for is that Sanchez has a re-birth coming off the DL similar to the one he had when he went to the bullpen in 2009 and he can be counted on to take over for Zito before he does too much damage to that impressive team ERA/WHIP……

Sierrra Nevada’s post at the end of the last thread was too good to let die there and I am interested in all your thoughts about the way McCourt was running the team. I honestly didn’t understand everything he was doing but the basic gist of it was that money that was supposed to be shared with other owners was getting diverted back to McCourt. Here’s the link to the rather complicated flow chart: http://www.dodgerdivorce.com/2011/06/mechanics.html

And here is SN’s post. Thanks for doing my work for me today, dude. I could have discussed the irony of Zito and Voggy pitching today’s double header but most of it would have just been obvious observations:

Getting back to the question Flavor asked of “are other owners getting away with the same kind of arrangements?”, I would bet that the answer is yes and no.

Yes, in the sense that the league expects a team with attendance and revenue issues to do whatever it takes to stay afloat, and is happy to dole out revenue sharing to such teams as a way of keeping team values up and always on the rise.

But teams like the Yankees and Dodgers are expected to make money and be feeders of the revenue sharing system. So for them, the answer is No. The sin that McCourt has committed is he took a team that owned its own stadium and could be reasonably expected to be a profit center for the league in perpetuity, and turned it into a revenue sink. What McCourt has done has basically fucked the league’s basic economic model. You can bet that the other owners, particularly the ones that count on revenue sharing to fund their “lifestyle” are not going to be too keen on seeing that happen. Not to mention the players association – if the other cash cows of the league get hollowed out like the Dodgers have, the free agent market collapses, because there will be no “profitable teams” to spend lavishly on FA’s and the small market teams will have to live within their means, which means no big free agents for them at all.

The only question is, can McCourt take the league down with him? When betting on legal outcomes, the rule is “bet on the side that has the richest guys”. Normally that means that the rich guys who own the rest of the teams in MLB win the day. But McCourt has borrowed a lot of money from a lot of rich guys to fund his scheme, and they will be on his side if a league victory means they don’t get paid. If McCourts debt has reached “too big to fail” territory, the league is fucked.

I know it’s probably not good for baseball, but seeing the Dodgers file for bankruptcy had me smiling a bit over my morning coffee. After being morally bankrupt for years this is a fitting compliment…….

Nice to have an off day today. With 6 games in 5 days we will need it. I’m not sure who takes the extra start this week. Mota? Probably. There isn’t anyone to call up. What worries me is the Zito start. Once he goes his usual 4.1 the bullpen will be taxed for that game and then I’m not sure how we go Mota/Affeldt on the extra game. I guess we’ll see what happens……

I took the time to appreciate that start from Bumgarner last night. After a total fail the start before he bounced back big time on the national stage. The Tribe left here beaten, broken, dazed and confused……..

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(I only dropped 2 pts and it could have been worse. My pitching staff went 1.1 innings yesterday with a tidy 60.75 ERA and a sleek 8.25 WHIP. It wasn’t all bad, I think it prepared me well for Zito’s start this week)

Lost in all the commotion of Dirrrrty heading to the DL, Zito returning and the clever ways we have developed to score a run is this nugget: Since The Mad Bum Implosion Inning our pitching staff has pitched 44 innings and given up 6 runs. When your pitching staff is dropping a 1.22 ERA on teams you can tolerate having a horrid offense–possibly the worst in either league……

So let’s assume Dirrrrty isn’t hurt and there isn’t any question whatsoever about his health. What is his trade value right now? It’s not hard to see that it’s a little on the low end but some of you might argue that his value is always pretty high. I’m fine with that for the sake of this next vote. Because he’s a FA next year I highly doubt that the Mets would agree to this deal. Another thing to keep in mind as you thoughtfully consider where to assign your single precious vote: assume that Reyes walks at the end of the year so we are only getting him for the rest of this year and the playoffs. Also assume that if we didn’t trade Sanchez he would sign another 1 year deal with us for approximately the same as he’s making this year (4.8 mill)

I know it won’t happen right away since they need him to pitch in one of the extra games added next week, but Bochy made it clear that Zito replacing Sanchez in the rotation would be a distinct possibility. It actually seems like a no-brainer to me. Dirrrrty has been awful this year. When you lead the league in walks allowed there’s really no way you’re going to be able to pitch deep into a game consistently. He’s wearing on the bullpen and the defense who has to stand out there motionless as he continues to offer free passes to the hitters. Ironically, he’s been a lot like Zito–a guy who you hold your breath with every time he takes the mound….

But there is precedent for some hope right now. Someone here will correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Dirrrrrty turn his 2009 season around when it was at it’s lowest? I can’t remember if he was yanked from the rotation or if he had just been pitching poorly, but his no-hitter v the Padres was a turning point for him in his career. He might have had a good start before that, too. I’ll let you all remind me of the details…..

But right now feels a lot like it did back then—-he was at his lowest and then……boom. He took off like a rocket ship……

Watching Jonathan’s body language, it’s obvious that he’s got a lot going on in his head. Honestly, he never really looks happy to me. I’m sure he’s spending all his emotional energy on trying to figure this out. It’s just not happening for him right now. But I do believe in him and I have faith that he will rebound in a way similar to the way he did in the Summer of 2009. One of my favorite blog moments of that season was immediately after the no-hitter when Mr DJ Loo re-posted a collection of posts that many of us had recently made about Dirrrrty–obviously all negative.

All I know for certain is that Zito is coming back. He will be returning to games with his usual inglorious aura of negativity and failure. Hopefully, it will last just long enough for Jonathan to get his confidence back. Be careful what you write about him during this down time in his career–it will come back to haunt you later. 🙂

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(Pawlie continues with his beatdown and surges to a 10 point lead while Ferretball tries to right her rudderless ship)

I’ll be honest, I don’t follow the Indians all that closely. But when I look at their roster, I have a hard time understanding how they are in first place. Their starting pitching is painfully average. They don’t have an ace on the staff. Perez is an ok closer, I guess–certainly not dominant. And their best hitter (Hafner) hits the bench for this series. I like Michael Brantley a lot, he’s a nice young hitter to watch. All in all, I think our pitching is going to completely shut down the Indians this weekend. They’re going to leave here dazed and confused, wandering through the rest of their inter-league trip racking up the losses……

Weird offensive series for Minnesota. They drop 8 on us in the first inning of Game 1 and then score 3 runs over the next 26 innings……..

Torres needs to get it going this weekend. He was given 2 days off to clear his head and it’s time to start producing. He’s not injured as far as I can tell. Our outfield production is just a joke this year. In fact, if you’re Sabean you could make a case to make a trade for a new starter at the following positions: catcher, shortstop, second base and outfield (maybe 2 outfielders). He might only end up doing a deal to fill one of those slots but it really is discouraging to look at so many gaps in our line up……

I’ve run out of words to describe my man-love for Ryan Vogelsong. His ERA sits at 1.86. He’s 2 innings away from qualifying for being the league leader in ERA (Jurrgens is next at 2.11 followed by Tommy Hanson at 2.48). Trip on that, he’s more than half a run AHEAD of the dude in 3rd place. His stat lines actually remind me a lot of Billy Swift’s time spent here in SF (low ERA, low WHIP, low SO total)…..

No comment about the offense. Nice night for Whitey but when he’s the dude driving in your runs you are not going to win too many games. Way too many guys still not driving the ball…….

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(Pawlie dominates as I close in on him and The Bombers cut it to single digits on Dirt…)

There are actually a lot of positives…..

1) We outscored them 2-1 over the final 8 innings.

2) Mota was brilliant and kept the pen as fresh as you can possibly keep it considering the circumstances he was faced with……

3) Bumgarner learned a little about pitching. You can’t throw pitch after pitch straight down the middle over and over again. It would be nice if Whiteside had a clue to try to disrupt that but he doesn’t. And as weak as Bum looked on the mound he was 10 feet tall in the dugout. Sticking around showed me a lot about his character……….

4) I finished some projects around the house……

Voggy goes today. He’s got 8 straight starts of allowing 0-2 runs. I fully expect him to keep that streak going today……

I had a buddy call me yesterday wanting to know if I thought Burriss or Ford were worth picking up off his waiver wire  in a fantasy baseball. He’s desperate for sb’s and isn’t much of a Giants fan so he was wondering if I thought they’d be able to pick up a few random sb’s in the coming weeks (he called me before Ford got sent down). Anyway, I told him I didn’t think either can get on base enough to ever get the chance, though Burriss might get his pinch run vulture sb opportunities now and again. At least before he gets sent down to AAA, which will probably happen soon.

It got me to wondering, why aren’t more of these super-fast guys good at baseball. I mean, they obviously are good enough to make it to the major leagues, but their speed doesn’t seem to ever translate into something dominant or even playable at this level. Why is that?

My theory is that speed is like a drug for scouts. They see it, they love it, they take it in even though they know it’s probably not good for them in the end. And the Fords and Burriss’ can definitely use their speed to motor through the lower levels. But I think it masks certain major gaps they have in their overall game–they can’t hit for power (or at all), they have no intuition or baseball knowledge, they can’t bunt or take a walk. Why can’t they at least learn how to bunt or take a walk? Basically, the game doesn’t come easy to them; except when they get to kick that gift into high  gear. The problem is, they don’t get the opportunity to go full speed that often. Put another way, once they get to first base they turn into Rickey Henderson. It’s the “getting on first base part” that’s the problem….

It makes me think that when you are talking *best player of all time* you almost have to include Rickey in the discussion. Ok, maybe not *Best Ever*. But 297 bombs coupled with 1,406 stolen bases, man, that’s a mind blowing exacta…..

XOOT actually won the vote for “Post of this Voting Period” but I gave it to Bill2 because I didn’t think Xoot would want his call out of Murph on the main page for such a long period of time. Of course, if he doesn’t mind I will slap it up there, it would just need a few edit corrections….

and just for the hell of it…

I think Mr DJ Loo has taken over Bagg’s Blog. His Soriano/Zambrano for Zito/Rowand has his finger prints all over it. Of course, I don’t see any team ever trading for Zito, regardless of how much salary they get to dump. About the only way I see a trade like that going down is if the Giants paid most of Zito’s contract, too. And that would just be idiotic. Plus, Sabean would never take in a lunatic like Zambrano……..

Why don’t we see more of those bad salary for bad salary deals? Does it ever happen? I can’t think of any. The only two reasons I can think of is that most of those high salary guys have no-trade clauses and they kill the deals and/or GM’s are afraid of how the  deal will turn out. Not only do these GM’s look like idiots for giving out mega-deals that fail but can you imagine how dumb they’d look if the bust player they traded turns it around on his new team? That would be *double* the reason to fire you. In fact, the Angels GM, Tony Reagins, is probably looking at the unemployment line at the end of the season if his mindblowingly stupid acquisition of Vernon Wells continues to look as bad as it does today……..

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(a slow Sunday with not a lot of movement except a couple of big point drops from yours truly and Chuck)

How about we settle who the POTVP is going to be. Look to the right and click on the link that says “This Voting Period’s Posts of the Day” and vote for your favorite. There are five to chose from.

If you haven’t read it yet, go check out Stewart’s fill-in blog post for Baggs today. Wow, I guess this guy doesn’t have to walk into the clubhouse ever. He second guesses Bochy and then skewers Sanchez. Then he goes on to rip the entire offense. Hey, we can do it on our fan blogs but I was surprised to read someone do it in an established media outlet like the Merc. I think he went overboard on Sanchez………

Last night’s game was bad, probably the worst we have played all season. And yet we still only lost 4-2. It felt like 14-2 but with our bullpen we will almost always be in a game to the end. I am hoping that Bochy is finally starting to realize that Nate is more valuable coming off the bench late. We should have had BOTH Burrell and Hall playing in this series, especially with the DH option–they represent some pop and this line up is desperate for it. And yet they both languished away on the bench last night (besides 1 ph for Burrell). Dumb. They should both be in the LU today……

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(Dennis and Blade slip back while Orbo re-starts his engines and sets his sights on Dirt)

Gawd, have we really been tolerating this gig since 1997? When I looked it up I thought it was going to be closer to 2001. Inter league play was fun when it started. It’s not fun now. How can the Chronicle label this “The Bay Bridge Series”? It’s just a random series against a truly boring team. Who do we have next? Minnesota—the worst team in the AL.  Then the Indians. Wow, can’t wait to see Michael Brantley in person. Unless you’re getting the Red Sox or the Yankees, inter league play is one giant bore. And it dilutes the World Series a bit, too. I love that the DH is in the American league, it’s the only thing that really differentiates the two leagues. But after watching 9 or 10 games ALREADY in the season, you get to the World Series and just go, “huh. I saw all this already.” Get rid of inter league play…….

Last night’s game was like almost all of our losses–nobody stepped up late to win it. It would be nice if Bochy stopped batting Huff in the 4 hole. I realize it won’t make that much difference since it’s always random who steps up for us late, but just on principle I’d like to see someone different. Put Ross in there, he’s hitting the ball harder than anyone. Bochy gets locked into wanting to put a proven, RBI guy in that slot but that’s the WRONG approach t0 take since almost all of our late inning hero’s come from just about any other spot in the line up. But, like I said, it would just be for looks, I don’t think it really matters where our hitters hit in the line up……..

I’m lovin’ me some Dirrrrty on the bump tonight. He usually pitches well against them. Keep Bill Hall in there at 2nd base for a while. Burriss has blown his chance and Hall at least gives you a chance to run into one……….

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(Blade sharpens his tools with a 4.5 gain, Berra’s Bombers seems to have slipped into a low-40’s rut. Wither Orbo?)

I don’t know why, but I’ve always thought of winning a series as “dusting” a team. It’s kinda *sweep* related and it sounds like a fairly disrespectful thing to do to someone. Anyway, that’s how my tortured mind works……By the way, the Snakes are clearly significantly worse than we are. Despite how boring and uninspiring our offense is, there just isn’t a team in the NL West that even remotely scares me……..

Timmy needs to get it going tonight against someone named “Godfrey”. His velocity has been fine, but his location has been crap. I wonder if we’ll see Stewart catch him tonight? I know Whitey got a hit this week, but it’s possible that Tim is just a little out of whack with El President catching. It’s possible and it probably doesn’t take much of a jolt to disrupt that complicated delivery. Anyway, Lincecum is the #5 right now so I’m gonna cut him some slack if he doesn’t do well tonight 🙂 ……

It’s possible that Fontenot is going to replace Burriss when he comes off the DL. That would be disappointing but not totally surprising. Burriss has not taken advantage of his opportunities to play. He might bring more to the team with his skills but Bochy will want a guy who isn’t going to make mistakes as often and that’s Fontenot.  And we will likely get an upcoming opportunity to see what Bill Hall is going to bring to the table. If it’s an occasional bomb that might be enough to get him a lot of playing time at second base……..

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(FerretHead has had ENOUGH and drops a 3 spot on us. Pawlie stands proud at the top of a mountain he’s known well this year….”

I didn’t see the game, I was busy playing softball getting the be-jesus kicked out of us. I read at Baggs blog that Hall is exited to have found a mechanical issue in his swing that he thinks will yield new results. Hey, I guess it’s possible. The dude has really only had one good year and I just assumed that was a *steroid* year. But if BamBam has found a flaw and he corrects it, then we could be looking at “Burrell 2011”. I am in a wait and see mode on this, though…….

The Snakes are who I thought they were: decent team, nothing to be afraid of, though. They are in pretty big doo-doo if Putz’ back stays balky. He’s been lights out this year but not last night. When Eli Whiteside is driving the ball you might not be pitching at your physical peak….

Read that Baggs thinks Cervelli would cost a “Wheeler or more”. That is absurd and I refuse to believe it. Maybe Runzler but I bet you could get away with 2 B-grade lefties from the farm system–Hinshaw and ? It just CANNOT be this hard to find a serviceable catcher and if it is then it was idiotic to not find a competent back up back stop last Winter……..

So I really nailed that Pablo prediction, didn’t I? He was fabulous. He doesn’t look like he’s put on any weight at all. And that 10 pitch at bat was incredibly welcomed. In fact, I was surprised at how patient the entire team was. Of course, Nate didn’t get it going till his hit in the 7th inning but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. Pablo hit the ground running and the team played inspired by his return. It’s nice that the offense finally got some good news for once….

I was unimpressed with the AZ starting pitcher that Murph and Mac were drooling over. He throws WAY too many change ups and made it easy for our guys to drop high pitch count at bats on him……

And I don’t think Cain pitched as badly as everyone is saying. He had that one dumb pitch to Montero but otherwise I thought he threw the ball really well……

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(Crazy Diamonds continues their charge while Dirt Bags tries to locate inner peace and ultimate knowledge….)

I’d like to believe that he’s going to storm the batters box like a Dragon Warrior and abuse the baseballs thrown his way. I’m hoping so, anyway. I also believe that he’s feeling a mountain of pressure to perform. For a guy who normally  is bursting out of his cleats to swing at  pitches, I’m not sure that’s the right kind of pressure for him but it’s unavoidable. It’s not like he can just slide through the back door of this line up and quietly resume his season. ALL EYES are on him and the fact is, this offense needs him desperately. One good thing about his return is that it will likely give the team a huge emotional boost and maybe Huff, Ross, everyone else will use it to kick start their own game……..

The idea of Pablo catching is really more talk show fodder than a reality. Catching requires a different type of conditioning as well as a  much broader focus on the game and again, he doesn’t really need something else to focus on right now. If it meant we were going to be able to utilize another stud 3rd baseman then it might be something to consider, but Pablo’s replacement (if he went to catcher) would be Miggy and that’s an underwhelming option at best…….

Prediction: The Return of The Panda will have a positive impact on the LU but I don’t think he’s going to start off hot. Even so, lighting a match to this offense with his return will be just what we need and Pablo will get straight soon enough even if it takes him a week to 10 days to do so……….

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(Unca-Chuck continues his slide into the abyss of mediocrity, BB finally takes a day off from a green number and Pawlie takes another run at No Talent)

Considering how he ended last year it’s amazing how excited we all are to get the Panda back. The obvious concern is that he comes back trying to do too much for an impotent offense and he swings at every pitch thrown to him but I guess that’s hardly a new approach for him. I haven’t seen him recently, at least not a full body shot, but I am assuming he kept up with his conditioning program while he was on the DL…….

One of the ESPN guys (I think it was Bobby V) thinks that Tejada is going to slide over to 2nd base now that the Panda is back and Crawford doesn’t seem to be going anywhere at SS. Please say that isn’t being considered. Tejada can play ONE infield position decently right now: third base. How in the hell is he supposed to just “slide over to 2nd base”, play a position he’s never played before and be expected to meet even low expectations? I like the plan of starting Burriss most games at 2nd base. Last night we saw what he can do defensively if he’s allowed to play his natural position. His bat is obviously a concern but so is Tejada’s. I’d rather go with lockdown defense up the middle and just hope that Crawford/Burriss hit enough to be “one of the guys”…..Bill Hall? He’s probably going to get a few games at 2nd. I guess he needs to prove he sucks first before they ditch that plan. We’ll see……

I wonder what Sabean is realistically considering for the catcher position. He can’t actually believe there is any combination of El Presidente and *Vice-Presidente* that would result in anything useful. I have a secret hope that Benjie has been getting back in shape since Posey went down. We know the pitchers love to throw to the guy. And he wouldn’t come off the shelf and bat clean up so the expectations of his bat can be lowered to realistic levels. I dunno, I just like the idea of Molina coming back. It could be a great story. And who doesn’t love all things Molina?

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(I would not want to be Dirt Bags this morning. He’s coming for you, dude)

In order of who I listen to on KNBR (in order of frequency), it probably goes Razor and Mr T, Murph and Idiot, Marty Lurie and Byrnsie. I almost never listen to Radnitch or Bob and his side kick. Mostly my KNBR time is dictated by when I’m driving around so that’s why I don’t hear the mid day guys too much. Anyway, of the shows I listen to here’s a list of the players the callers seem to want to acquire the most:

1) Reyes. This seems to be a constant. The callers don’t seem to realize that he’s not a run producer, he’s a run scorer. Having Reyes die at 2nd base 3 times a game ain’t gonna cut it….

2) Carlos Beltran–this is really more of a Lurie dream but his callers don’t seem to argue with him. I agree Beltran is having a good season but he CANNOT stay healthy. Risky rental…….

3) Jorge Freaking Posada. As I posted yesterday, this one might be my favorite (since half the reason I listen to callers in to shake my head horizontally and do my best Johnny McEnroe “You have got to be KIDDING me!”). I watch a lot of Yankee games and maybe some of these guys actually have to see Posada’s swing to see how done he is. He’s had a decent June but it’s all a mirage. He’ll be back into the .100’s before the 4th of July. Acquiring Posada is always linked to trading the Yanks Zito and again I don’t understand why callers think the Yankees would want Zito. The prevailing argument always seems to be “they don’t care about money”. Yeah, that’s a reason to acquire him, dumbasses…..

4) Pudge Rodriguez. Everyone seems to want him for his leadership and experience–how he manages the game, all that jazz. Hey, I’m ok with that, anyone but El Presidente who is embarrassing himself right now. The pitchers HAVE to be getting worn down by this guy’s play behind the dish…….

There are others, but those are the main 4. It’s the same story as last year (and the year before that and the year before that and….). Everyone says we are “1 big bat in the middle of the line up” away from a good offense. I’m not sure if that’s true. First of all, you have to be careful about how big that bat is. If the Giants traded the moon for Pujols, how many strikes do you think he’d see? This team will always be built around a bunch of guys who just manage to do enough—a revolving door of players who step up with that big hit in the last couple of innings. However, if we don’t get the catcher situation figured out our pitchers are probably going to start giving up a lot more runs that we are used to seeing. Then, the “timely hit near the end of the game” won’t matter much if we are down 6-1 in the 8th………

I’m not that worried about Franchez going down. Panda and Posey were infinitely more critical. Freddy has gotten some big hits this year and he’s played good defense but he plays a position that isn’t usually super productive for the offense (unless your name is Cano) and seems to spend most of his waking moments dreaming about and trying to go to right field (or bunt a guy over when he should be swinging the bat)…..

So, of all those guys listed, if I had to choose one, I’d probably go with Pudge just to try to keep the pitching staff from falling apart. Right now, our realistic hope should be getting back a healthy Panda and getting Huff and Ross to start hitting again………

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(The top guys take a step back, the middle guys make a move and BB’s jumps 3.5 monster points as he continues his quest to pass Irish Giants)

Uh, just saw this. Bill Hall sucks. If he couldn’t hit at MinuteMade Park he is done-zo. Right handers ABUSE that left field wall (and beyond). He could barely hit it out of the infield. He’ll be worse than Tejada. Idiotic signing……..

I think everyone is starting to notice that Nate  is a different hitter late in the game (as I pointed out last week.. Kuiper discussed it on his show, too). I’m fine with him starting because the alternative is Rowand or Burrell starting in his place and that just won’t do. But he’s just the perfect secret weapon to bring off the bench to win you a game late. As I said last week, I think Nate is our MVP this season. In fact, time for a poll…….

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(things are getting wild with NoWhitey taking a precipitous drop, NoTalent showing he’s got ALL the talent with a 5 pt jump and a stranglehold on first place, and BB’s hits the 40 pt mark for the first time in a month. With the bounty he just secured from our BLOCKBUSTER trade, there’s no telling where he might end the season).

So I think we all know “The Plan” by now. Have the pitchers pitch lights out and have 1 of our non-pitchers get a timely hit in the 7th inning on to win the game for us. It just didn’t happen last night. But despite our disgustingly impotent offense, I think we all have confidence that The Plan will get executed successfully more often than not…..

I didn’t share Kruk and Kuip’s love-fest over El Presidente’s 3rd gunned down runner of the year. He needs to do that consistently. If he’s not going to hit at all he’s got to be able to at least stop opposing runners from running wild on him. Pudge Rodriguez wouldn’t be my first choice but if he’s the only one available I will take him on the cheap since ANYONE would upgrade that position. “ABEP” is the way to look at this…….

Voggy’s turn to shut down the opposition. He’s facing “T-Wood” and this guy has been awful this year. Still, I fully expect we are going to have to scratch out a single run in the 7th inning or later to beat him. Pretty much every pitcher who goes against us is going to be lights out this year…….

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

(things get crowded at the top while Irish Giant’s is the next team to feel the icy glare of Berra’s Bombers…)

Winning the World Series had to be the biggest baseball high any of those players have ever experienced in their careers. From that type of high there’s really no where to go but down. They all got paid. They all got their rings. The mountain had been conquered.  At the very least, entering 2011,  it was probably hard for many of them to maintain that same killer drive instinct that so many of them rode through the playoffs last year.

In fact, we’ve seen a lot of Giants this year kinda stumble out of the game. The only player on the team who was having a better 2011 than 2010 was probably The Panda.

Then Buster went down…….

I can imagine that maybe this was one of those watershed moments in a season where everyone looked around at each other and basically said “Barry Bonds isn’t walking through that door to save our offense. Somehow, some way, we have to get it done”. Either they were going to overcome the adversity or succumb to it.

And from that moment on  I think everyone on the team recaptured a focus that was missing to start the year. Maybe they’re taking an us v world mentality, maybe they just don’t want to be embarrassed on this World Series tour. Whatever it is, it seems like this team just knows that one of them will step up and do whatever is needed to win the game.

Everything happens for a reason. We might end up looking back at the night Buster broke his ankle not as the death of the season but as the moment the match was lit. And if you’re trying to repeat as World Champions, is there any other way to look at it?

Well put, Franchez…..

The line up and the offense wasn’t really any different than usual, we just didn’t have any late inning heroics. Not much else to say about the offense….

However, the bullpen is another story……..

I haven’t had any coffee yet and I did this without jotting any notes down so excuse me if I missed a run, but by my count the bullpen has now gone 19 straight innings without giving up a run. The last run they gave up was June 2 (2011) in St Louis–Mota gave up a 4 spot.

That got me to wondering what the record is for most scoreless innings by an mlb bullpen. I did a little light internet searching and came up with nothing before I was distracted by a spontaneous bikini-babe search…..

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

(BB’s continues his *Arazi* like move around the turn, Kokonuts slaps a 5-spo on us, and last year’s champ BLADE sinks further into the abyss)…

I missed most of the game but I see the bullpen was lights out with 8 innings of no run ball. In fact, the last 10 innings we pitched were shut out innings. I ran out of adjectives a long time ago to describe the heart and soul of this team…

Do you think the Nats are looking forward to getting another shot at Dirrrrrty today? He put up one of the weirder lines of the season the last time he pitched against them: 5 innings, 6 walks, 7 k’s, 0 ER’s. I think he is probably going to steamroll them today–that loss last night had to have taken a little wind out of their sail…….

Only 2 teams (Philly and St Louis)  in all of baseball have won more games than us and no one in the American League has more victories. Bizarre……

Zito had a good line last night. No surprise, a bunch of single A batters aren’t going to the plate to coax a walk out of him (he walked nobody). I bet all the Ports batters went up their wide eyed and aggressive trying to get a hit off a former CY-for most of them, that’s as close as they’ll ever get to facing one again…….

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

(there’s a new sheriff in town, at least patrolling the dregs of the standings. Berra’s Bombers, once so low they had a point total of 12, have risen from the ashes and planted a flag at the top of Mount 13! Giant head makes a monster 12 point move and No Talent clings to his once great lead)

Unfortunately, DW has only pitched 53.2 innings this year. Had he pitched at least 59 he would be the current ERA leader of the National League at 1.68 (Josh Johnson is actually lower at 1.64 but he’s on the DL so I’m not counting him). His WHIP (1.04) is impregnable, his opp BA (.214) is impetuous and he’s just ferocious…..

I wonder what pitching starved teams are thinking this morning. The Giants, with arguably the best staff in baseball, just picked the NL ERA leader clean off the scrap heap. That HAS to have a guy like Brian Cashman shaking his head…..

I’d also like to see a Sports Illustrated story on this ASAP. It should be on the cover. The 126 million dollar headache has been relieved by the $414,000 castoff. The picture could be of Voggy doing a Kung Fu move on Zito’s head. That might get me to buy my first SI since probably the late 90’s….

Try to get your brain to process this: Ryan Andrew Vogelsong, a guy we drafted in the 5th round in 1998 and traded away on July 30th, 2001 has made Barry Zito disappear. He’s freaking Houdini……

This is insane…..

It’s absurd……

The Dragon Warrior is the best story in baseball this year…….

took a snap shot of my monitor at work today. From left to right: a Hackman baseball card. In front of that is the action figure of Hackman (a gift from Kokonuts). Then the Ross bobblehead, then the Timmy bobblehead. Not sure how many of you got th Ross bobblehead but he looks black……

My *buddies* at work

I’ll be honest, I am pretty disappointed in Brian Sabean and Buster Posey– they have embarrassed themselves and the team. I don’t particularly have an issue with what they said, it’s that they said it at all….

When you are World Series Champions you are under a microscope for pretty much the entire following season. Earlier this year, I remember Huff, Wilson and others going to a hockey game in another city and they acted like it was amateur night–lots of pictures were taken of them basically looking like asses—you know, they way all ball players act when they aren’t playing baseball. But when you’re the WS champs, those photos get plastered all over the place by the national media…..

And now we have the exacta box of Sabean and Posey. Sabean ended up looking like a whiny pussy who was suggesting something bad would happen to Cousins in the future–again, maybe worded a little differently, I KNOW  that story doesn’t make the national news–how many times has a ballplayer/manager etc said “we’ll get that guy one day.”  They say it and do it all the  time. But when you’re the WS champion, you can’t say that stuff, especially as the GM, and expect it to just stay on the friendly airwaves of KNBR.

And then we have Posey releasing a statement that he did not need to  release. Inexplicably, he basically says the same thing he said before: I’m not talking to that dude. How does he come across? Pretty much the same way as Sabean….

I find all this just a bit ironic that a team owned by a lawyer who is obviously versed in how to release information to the public, would let the individuals in his organization run around so freely without the proper filter on. It’s minor league stuff. It’s bush league. It’s amateur hour. If they have a PR dept they need to expand their role and/or find some new guys to do the job. Get IN FRONT on what is being said to the public before it is said.

You’ve heard the saying “act like you’ve been there before.” Well, the last week was a great example of the Giants failing to do that……..

Can you imagine the pure GOLD that Showtime is getting if this is how they are acting in public? This could be the greatest documentary of all time…….

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

(Berra’s Bombers continues their assault on 13th place but FH will have NONE of it!)

The Rockies aren’t very good. When I watch them hit on the road it’s just a revolving door of underwhelming hitter after underwhelming hitter. And they’ve got the exact same record this year on the road as they do at home so I think they are missing a piece or two, intangible or otherwise……

I’ve made no attempt to hide my support for Burriss. He’s gets shit for his defense but he’s playing out of position every single game he starts. I think if he got some consistent time at 3rd or SS he could field adequately enough to provide good value to the team–I just love him near the top of our order. Obviously the Panda is coming back soon and Crawford has SS until he gives it up but line ups have a way of working themselves out. I think Burriss could still be a big piece of the puzzle for us this year…….

How long does the Eli Whiteside Death March go on for? Sabean has got to be on the phones, right? I still think Cervelli would be a great pick up. Give the Yankees one of our lower level left handed prospects (Hinshaw and something else?) and they’d probably do it. He doesn’t give you any power but he can hit better than Whiteside if given consistent at bats. We just can’t keep running this stiff out there………

The Brandon Crawford Story is really getting interesting. When they showed a replay of his mom catching a foul ball, something I’ve failed to do in probably 200+ attended Giants games, I decided that this guy has got *it* and could vie with Voggy for “Feel Good Story of  the Year”…….

Not sure if we get this game in today. As I type this I’m looking out the window at a grey December morning. It’s Haiku weather…….

The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings

(Berra’s Bombers inches ever closer to the unthinkable: 13th place)…….

This trip provided us a great reminder that we are the World Champions. I’d forgotten about how cool Aubry Huff’s HR trots are. They’ve got like this understated jazzy flair–almost the exact opposite of my main man Jeff Leonard. He’ll give a little gentle bat flip, he pauses before touching a bag and then speeds up as he touches it–almost imperceptible. For a moment, it’s like watching old film from the 30’s. Anyway, I hope those three BOMBS are enough to get him going. And bombs are really going to have to be the cornerstone of how we generate runs this year. We were never a small ball team. Not last year, not this year. And we don’t need to lead the league in HR’s but we do need to hit them to win games consistently. St Louis got an SF Giant Slap Down this week………

Without further adieu I give you….The Flap Fantasy Baseball Standings (There’s been a lot of movement since I last posted the standings. As Edd warned us this morning on the message board, “baseball is a long season….” Muhuahahahahaha!!!!!)

How often does Nate suck you into believing in him? “What could this guy do with full time at bats?” you dream to yourself….He’s a tough cat to wrap your brain around. He shows flashes of brilliance at the plate and with th glove. He’s got power (you don’t hit it 3rd deck at Coors field without it) and he’s got speed for a big man. Seemingly, he’s got it all. And yet…….

I think I’ve finally just accepted that Nate is most valuable as we’ve seen: in the late innings he turns it on. His stats marginally support this.  In his career, as a starter he’s hit .263, as a sub he’s hitting .294. In extra innings his batting average is .389. Of course, his batting average in innings 1-3 is .273, in innings 7-9 it’s .256.  so it’s not like the stats are heavily supporting something one way or the other. But he just seems to come up big late in a game. His hits are more timely or something.  We all know about his glove and that golden arm. I just think that, for whatever reason, he’s most focused and most successful late in a game. And you know what? What’s wrong with having a guy like that on your bench? Even if he starts, that’s one more guy who you can count on late in a game to come through….

For different reasons, Nate reminds me a little of Velez from a couple of years ago–a guy who you don’t really think of as a huge cog on the team and a guy who isn’t even a starter–but a guy who racks up as many POTG pics as anyone of the team…..

For this offense to get better it’s not just about who Sabean is going to add but rather who he’s going to subtract……

Eli Whiteside is not a starting MLB catcher. That hit and run last night was actually the best piece of hitting I’ve ever seen him do. The subsequent 3 strike outs reminded me of who he is. He’s got 2 hits since Buster went down (and if they don’t do that hit and run last night, he’d still be stuck on 1…..

Miguel Tejada: Miggy doesn’t even seem to try to drive the ball anymore. Every hit, ever out, seems to be some type of ground ball to/through the infield. Even his hard hit balls don’t seem to get much carry on them. And he seems super tentative on defense, reacting defensively instead of just reacting naturally. It’s hard to watch him play baseball right now.

Pat Burrell: This is the side of Bochy I still don’t get. On his pre-game show he was saying that since he was giving Huff a rest he had to have a clean up guy in the 4 spot and that’s why he wrote Burrell in there. But anyone can see that Burrell is done. What his baseball card says is of no consequence anymore. At BEST he’s going to work a walk, which he did twice last night. Is that what Bochy was looking for from the 4 hole?

Aubry Huff: This is a tough one to write but I think Huff’s 1 on/1 off pattern is in his head. We’re 2 months into the season and he’s still scuffling hard. I know how much money he’s making but Rowand makes more and he finally had to take a seat. At the very least, Bochy has to stop batting him 4th……

Tough game for Vogelsong. He’s now 3rd in the NL in ERA behind Jurrgins and Josh Johnson. His control wasn’t there but he gutted through 5 innings against a tough offensive team in their yard. We had a rare bullpen meltdown, it happens. I wonder when the National media guys are going to latch on to this story? Typical troll writers, they’ve got no problem writing a million stories about Zito’s failures but as soon as an amazing, uplifting story like this replaces Zito’s failures those National writers are nowhere to be seen. This is a great story, someone at SI should be writing about it……….